On the Formation of Clouds in the Dusty Ionosphere of Mars

Abstract

Dusty plasma clouds observed at altitudes of about 100 km in the mesosphere of Mars have been considered. Features of the dusty ionosphere of Mars compared to the dusty ionosphere of the Earth have been listed. The equations of the model describing self-consistently dusty plasma structures in the ionosphere of Mars have been presented. This model involves features that are important for the ionosphere of Mars but are ignored when describing the dusty plasma system in the ionosphere of the Earth. In particular, the model for Mars involves effects of deceleration of dust particles because of the adhesion of condensed molecules to them. An altitude distribution of particles constituting mesospheric clouds on Mars has been calculated with the self-consistent model. It has been shown that an important factor for the formation of dusty plasma clouds in the ionosphere of Mars is the Rayleigh–Taylor instability, which limits both the maximum size of dust particles that can form dusty plasma clouds and the maximum thickness of the dusty plasma clouds.